Celestia has had a really long day. She had her hooves full in dealing with all the Nobles that were actually brave enough to venture through the Everfree Forest to reach the castle, where she and Luna resided, to demand that the Princess of the Day permit them to tax the Common Ponies' more than she currently allows (she wouldn't even tax her little ponies in the first place, but the kingdom needs something to pay for the resources and labor required to build buildings and forge weapons for the royal guard).
The only thing that kept her from ordering the guard to kick the stuck up brats' out was Prince Redblood, a very kind, brave, and generous pony who earned the title of 'Prince' for infiltrating the Crystal Empire without consent of either of the diarchs and freeing a mare by the name of Rose Quartz, whom he is now happily married to, and her two foals, a colt and filly, who were about to be punished by the newly crowned tyrant King Sombra himself for accidently tripping him while they were being taken to the crystal mines with the other children. The Prince actually requested that Celestia LOWER the taxes on the commoners, saying that he'll pay the audited fine with his own bits.
But we are getting off track, so let us return to the VERY exhausted Solar Diarch who had just lay down for a good nights' rest while her beloved little sister, Lu-
"WAKE UP, TIA!!!!"
I'm going to kill her one of these days... Celestia thought to herself as she slowly rose from under her sheets, unaffected by the Royal Canterlot Voice (as all Alicorns' ears had an immunity to it), but still peeved that Luna had woken her up in the middle of the night. She turned her head to see the Lunar Alicorn smiling brightly at her, which caused the Solar Alicorn to smile as well, despite previous thoughts, as her young sister had not smiled like that since they were both foals.
"Sister, not that I am complaining, quite the opposite in fact, but what has caused thee to become so merry?," Celestia asked.
"Well, big sister," Luna replied, "we have a guest."
Celestia's ears perked up, who in the name of Faust would visit at this time of night? She saw her sister turn her gaze to the foot of the bed, which the solar alicorn followed.
What she saw made her jaw drop almost comically to the floor.
Before her was the biggest pony she's ever seen besides herself and her parents, just a few inches shorter than the Ruler of the Day and a head taller than Luna not counting her horn, which had an identical shape to King Sombra's, but was royal purple instead of red. He had a pale grey coat with a black mane and tail that also resembled the aforementioned tyrants' in the fact of its' flowing and licking of the back of his neck and flank like a pair of black flames.
But what received her full attention was the wings that were folded neatly against the sides of his body.
Impossible... Celestia thought to herself, but the proof was right there in front of her.
Before anypony could say anything, the Solar Princess was out of her bed and in front of the stallion, looking at his bright orange eyes with her own soft magneta ones.
"Greetings," said the alabaster mare, smiling brightly, "my name is Celestia."
The stallion returned the smile, showing four razor sharp canines reaching past 28 smaller, but no less sharp fangs. Concerned with how this stallion was turning out to be an almost identical copy to a certain tyrant, she promptly asked the next few questions.
"what is thine name?" the mare asked.
"Death," the stallion answered.
"Where dost thou comest from?"
"Thou could say that I came from the stars."
"So, thou art an alien?"
"In a manner of speaking."
"What is strapped to thine sides?"
"Chaos Fang is the name, they were gifts from a shaman who rewarded me for the good that a... 'close friend' of mine has done."
On and on it went like this: Celestia asking a question, and Death answering without hesitation. In truth, it was beginning to annoy Luna, as she found no interest in her sister interrogating Death, so she just lifted Despair, who was knocked out by the Night Princess' Royal Canterlot Voice, and placed him on the bed so he could rest. Finally after what seemed like forever, Celestia asked Death the final question.
"Last question," the Solar Princess began, her flowing pink mane magically straightening itself out, eliminating all traces of bedhead, "dost thou have any relations with a black Unicorn who looks like thineself?"
The male Alicorn looked at his female counterpart with curiosity before shaking his head and answering with a 'no'.
Celestia stared into Death's eyes, looking for any sort of deceit, finding none, she smiled and stepped back from the stallion. "Sorry for asking all those questions, I had to be sure that thou art telling the truth."
Death chuckled at this before replying, "Trust me, I would be wary if thou believest me. But might I ask, Why wouldst thou question if I knew a black Unicorn, and in what ways are we similar to one another?"
"Well," She began, "it is just that thine horn, fangs, mane, and tail look eerily familiar to a Unicorn who goes by the name of Sombra, King of the Crystal Empire, I believe that the name of this kingdom is quite self-explanatory as to what it is like."
Death wasn't surprised by this, if anything, he was interested as to how these ponies could build structures out of solid crystal. But Celestia's next words caught his undivided attention.
"Sombra staged a one-pony coup against the former king and queen, and made himself the sole ruler, and now enslaves his subjects, forcing them to mine for crystals to feed his magic. While it pains me to see these ponies under such subjugation, we cannot attack Sombra directly without the fear of him harming the Crystal Ponies, so I am having Luna leave in three days to hopefully convince him to sign a treaty between Equestria and the Crystal Empire, that way we can lure him into a false sense of security and take him out while he's not expecting it."
Curious, Death asked, "Why send Luna? While I am more than sure that she can handle herself, would it not be wiser to just send an ambassador?"
"Actually, no," Luna interjected, gaining the attention the stallion, "Celestia believes that Sombra will be more cooperative if one of us were to attend, also," the Lunar Alicorn turned her head away from the Alicorns, with an annoyed look on her face, "he has been pinning over me ever since he came to power, begging me to be his special somepony."
For some reason, Death grew to hate the king more than he previously had. Sure, he could see the genious of such a tactic, to use Sombra's desires against him, so that he will agree to any demands that the sisters make, therefore making it easier to get close enough to him to knock the Mad King of his throne. In fact, the former Nephilim recalled that the humans once had a Queen who used a similar tactic to have more of her demands met at peace negotiations. But something about this, using Luna, just rubbed him the wrong way. But this was not his kingdom to rule, and he had no say in what the sisters choose to do, especially since it'll help take this bastard down a peg.
"Very well," he answered, getting up from his sitting position, "I guess I'll leave you to your devices, but I do require a place to stay."
"Say no more," Celestia replied, giving the male Alicorn a playful smirk, "If thou desires, I can have thee put in the chambers just across the hall from my sister, in case thou would wish to see her for any activities."
At this, Luna and Death both blushed, while the latter agreed and quickly snatched up the still sleeping Despair in his magic and ran with the blue Alicorn to their respective rooms, both hoping to get away from the elder sister's teasing.